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Four Ways to Create a More Successful Project Management Office (PMO)

Make an Existing PMO Stronger or Create a Successful PMO From the Start

SEATTLE, WA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- September 27, 2005 -- Project Management Offices (PMOs) provide the
oversight and coordination to deliver projects on time and on budget by
managing and reporting on your total schedule, risk, cost, quality, scope,
and resources across all projects. But many PMOs fail to deliver on the
promise, often because they are not properly empowered or equipped with the
right tools.

Here are four ideas for either making an existing PMO stronger or creating
a successful PMO from the start:

#1) Take the PMO Outside Information Services

Most PMOs are established to manage massive, complex IT projects. But when
you really think about it, the business of business is projects. From
opening a branch office, to hiring an employee, to developing a new product
or service, to auditing financial reports, nearly every business function
is essentially about planning, executing, and reporting on projects.

To get an entire enterprise focused on project success, the PMO must be
designed, empowered, and equipped to serve the entire enterprise. It must
be capable of solving big business problems like selecting the right
projects, assigning the right resources to them, and then determining
Return on Investment (ROI). It should also provide a collaborative
environment for knowledge-sharing, document repository and communication
horizontally across project teams and vertically across business line
management.

#2) Focus on Methods, Processes and Metrics

The PMO is the guardian of corporate methodology, standards, and metrics.
Begin with a thorough review and audit of the implementation of project
management in your enterprise to insure good project management practices
are being applied. This provides the opportunity for the PMO to streamline
methodologies, map out different models, and determine best practices that
can be applied across the corporation.

In departments where practices are less than satisfactory, the PMO can
provide assistance (i.e., training, coaching, and mentoring) in complying
with standard project management practices.

To ensure that methods are being practiced properly, the PMO should have
the software tools to provide a business governance dashboard or
scoreboard, with a variety of views and reporting such as GANTT charts for
projects throughout the enterprise. This dashboard should display
agreed-upon project metrics such as strategic alignment or cost/benefit.

#3) Provide On-demand Access to the PMO System

To be fully embraced by all stakeholders, the PMO must permeate the
enterprise at every level. The most effective way to do this is to make
your PMO system accessible via the web (on-demand) to everyone in the
organization. This includes those inside the enterprise, such as executive
management, PMO staffers, and internal project team members, as well as
constituents outside the enterprise like vendors, partners, and customers.

Too often, a PMO becomes a centralizing force, a bottleneck that hinders
project success. The web-based workspace is important for keeping the PMO
decentralized and ensuring that knowledge is shared across the enterprise.

#4) Don't Overcomplicate the Process with Complex Tools

Many project management systems are designed for multi-billion dollar
corporations, and are complex and expensive. Most companies don't need
that level of complexity, and certainly can't afford the high price tags.
The trick is to look for project management systems that offer 80 percent
of the features of the bigger systems at a fraction of the cost. At
minimum, the web-based solution should have:

-- The ability to discuss and solve issues
-- The ability to share documents with version control, check in and out,
and full history
-- A master project template which can be duplicated for each project
complete with all project document templates, toolkits, schedules,
checklists, and a consistent project process
-- A project documentation library allowing project team members to
update and share information pulling from best practices and adding to
lessons learned
-- An area to post and update project tasks in real-time
-- The ability to consolidate the information from multiple projects,
provide mentoring for improvement, and highlight best practices
-- Project scheduling, resource allocation and variance reporting
-- Real-time status, indicators, and reports on all projects in a Project
Portfolio format

About eProject

eProject (www.eproject.com) delivers the only on-demand project and
portfolio management solution for the extended enterprise. eProject is an
intuitive, unified platform that enables users to maximize project ROI by
compressing project cycle times, identifying best practices and optimizing
resource allocations, with rapid deployment and quick adoption. eProject is
used by more than 350 companies worldwide including BASF, BP, Cushman and
Wakefield, Dow Chemical, Honeywell and T-Mobile.